Community colleges want to remind Americans that the road less traveled is not always the worst path. Once disparaged as inferior to four-year institutions, these two-year colleges are finally stepping up their game — at times even outperforming their traditional university counterparts.
In 22 states, community colleges have expanded to include four-year bachelor’s degree programs in high-demand fields. And soon the federal government also may be granting free rides to community college through the America’s College Promise Act of 2015 — or what the media peddleas President Barack Obama’s “GI Bill.” If passed, the new legislation would allow up to nine million first-time enrollees to earn associates degrees every year at no charge.
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Minnesota, Oregon and Tennessee are already blazing the trail of the college-for-all circuit, and at least another 10 states — including California, Illinois and Oklahoma — plan to join the bandwagon. Such initiatives from all levels of government are proving to be more critical than ever, with public-college costs rising faster than private-college tuition rates and the need for post-secondary training in most jobs seeing steady growth through 2020.
Drawing on the results of the analysis on the best and worst individual community colleges in the U.S., WalletHub presents a state-by-state ranking of community college systems. You can find the results as well as our detailed methodology below.
The personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016’s Best & Worst Community Colleges then drew upon its results to identify the States with the Best & Worst Community College Systems.
To help students weigh their community-college prospects, WalletHub’s analysts compared 821 schools across 12 key metrics. The data set ranges from the cost of in-state tuition and fees to student-faculty ratio to graduation rate.
| Top 20 Community Colleges | |||||
| 1 | Helene Fuld College of Nursing (NY) | 11 | Southwest Wisconsin Technical College (WI) | ||
| 2 | Ilisagvik College (AK) | 12 | Mesalands Community College (NM) | ||
| 3 | Pamlico Community College (NC) | 13 | Moorpark College (CA) | ||
| 4 | Cochise County Community College District (AZ) | 14 | Pratt Community College (KS) | ||
| 5 | State Technical College of Missouri (MO) | 15 | Coastline Community College (CA) | ||
| 6 | Fashion Institute of Technology (NY) | 16 | Northern Oklahoma College (OK) | ||
| 7 | Rend Lake College (IL) | 17 | Whatcom Community College (WA) | ||
| 8 | Lake Area Technical Institute (SD) | 18 | Barstow Community College (CA) | ||
| 9 | Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture (NE) | 19 | Manhattan Area Technical College (KS) | ||
| 10 | North Central Missouri College (MO) | 20 | Turtle Mountain Community College (ND) | ||
| States with the Best Community College Systems | |||||
| 1 | South Dakota | 11 | Georgia | ||
| 2 | Alaska | 12 | New Mexico | ||
| 3 | North Dakota | 13 | Nebraska | ||
| 4 | Florida | 14 | California | ||
| 5 | Montana | 15 | Iowa | ||
| 6 | Wyoming | 16 | Arizona | ||
| 7 | Washington | 17 | Arkansas | ||
| 8 | Wisconsin | 18 | Mississippi | ||
| 9 | Connecticut | 19 | New York | ||
| 10 | New Hampshire | 20 | Maine | ||
Read the full reports:
- Individual School Rankings: https://wallethub.com/edu/
best-worst-community-colleges/ 15076/ - School System Rankings: https://wallethub.com/edu/
states-with-best-worst- community-college-systems/ 15073/
